Development Snoke's appearance changed throughout
principal photography and
post-production of
The Force Awakens.
Andy Serkis said, "It's the first time I've been on set not yet knowing what the character's gonna look like. I mean, talk about secrecy!" According to the actor, the character's appearance, voice and movements evolved as he and the film's writer/director
J. J. Abrams challenged the visual effects team. According to
The Force Awakens senior sculptor Ivan Manzella, "Snoke almost became a female at one point. J. J. picked out a
maquette he liked and then we took it to a full-size version, sculpted in
plasteline. J. J. and [creature creative supervisor
Neal Scanlan] didn't want him to be old and decrepit, like
[Emperor Palpatine]." Manzella later revealed that, influenced by a reference by Abrams to
Hammer House of Horror, he partially based a maquette of Snoke on
Peter Cushing, who portrayed
Grand Moff Tarkin in the
original Star Wars film.
Portrayal portrays Snoke in the
Star Wars sequel trilogy.|thumb|upright|left While Serkis secretly joined the project in February 2014, his casting in
The Force Awakens was first announced on April 29, 2014. When asked about his role in July 2014, he joked, "I'm not
Yoda." In May 2015, a
StarWars.com interview with photographer
Annie Leibovitz about her
The Force Awakens shoot for
Vanity Fair revealed that Serkis would be playing a
CGI character named Supreme Leader Snoke, and featured an image of the actor in
motion capture gear. Serkis had previously played several CGI characters using motion capture technology, including the
titular gorilla in 2005's
King Kong, and
Caesar in the
Planet of the Apes reboot series. In November 2015, Serkis said of the process of creating Snoke: According to Serkis' costar
Lupita Nyong'o, who played the CGI character
Maz Kanata in
The Force Awakens, the actor coached her on performance-capture work, telling Nyong'o that "a motion-capture character you develop the same way as any other. You have to understand who the character is and what makes them who they are." Serkis said of filming: Costume designer
Michael Kaplan had the idea to give Snoke gold robes to contrast from his red and black throne room in
The Last Jedi. Director
Rian Johnson said the red motif was intended to evoke curtains in a nod to
The Wizard of Oz, in which
the titular character hides behind a curtain. The throne room was designed to look theatrical as opposed to Palpatine's, which was more utilitarian. The conceptual designers of the set were inspired by unused concept art for
Return of the Jedi depicting the Emperor's lava-based lair under the surface of
Coruscant. According to
The Last Jedi: The Visual Dictionary (2017), the gold ring Snoke wears is set with
obsidian from
Darth Vader's castle on
Mustafar. The glyphs it is set with are a reference to four philosophers Palpatine had statues of in his office, first seen in
Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones. Additionally, Palpatine's theme can be heard during the scene in which Snoke tortures
Rey.
Description In the context of the story, Snoke is a "genetic strandcast" (a type of
clone) created by Emperor Palpatine to serve as his proxy in power. Snoke, whom Abrams called "a powerful figure on the dark side of
the Force", was introduced as the leader of the
First Order and master to the sequel trilogy's main villain,
Kylo Ren. Serkis described Snoke as "quite an enigmatic character, and strangely vulnerable at the same time as being quite powerful. Obviously he has a huge agenda. He has suffered a lot of damage." Snoke's "scarred, cavernous face" was not revealed before the release of the film, in which he appears as a "massive, ominous hologram". The character's deep voice was first heard in the
teaser trailer released on November 28, 2014.
Robbie Collin of
The Telegraph described the disfigured and skeletal Snoke as a "sepulchral horror",
Richard Roeper of the
Chicago Sun-Times called him "hissing and grotesque", and Andrew O'Hehir of
Salon dubbed the character "a spectral demonic figure".
Varietys
Justin Chang wrote that Snoke resembled "a plus-sized, more articulate version of his character
Gollum", and Chris Nashawaty of
Entertainment Weekly described him as "essentially Emperor Palpatine crossed with one of the aliens from
Close Encounters."
Stephanie Zacharek of
Time called the character "a giant, scary, noseless dude who sits placidly in an oversized chair like a dark-lord version of the
Lincoln Monument." Palpatine himself, "the Operator"
Gallius Rax, a mysterious First Order manipulator from
Chuck Wendig's
Aftermath novel trilogy; or
Ezra Bridger, a main character from the animated series
Star Wars Rebels. ==Appearances==